The Reluctant Bride

by Anne Marie Duquette

“We’ll just add a decade or two onto the final total. You don’t want to get married at all, Karinne. Why not have the guts to admit it?”

  “I’m not staying that! I love you, and I know you love me. But my father needs me. So do Jon and my mother.”

  “So we wait until everyone’s given a clean bill of health?”

  “Yes. Is that asking too much?”

  “Your father’s elderly. He’s not going to get younger. Forgive my bluntness, but death is the only cure for old age.”

  Karinne gasped.

  “As for your brother, health and happiness may not be just around the corner, either. What if you’re not donor material?”

  “Max,” she said, “you’re the one who doesn’t want to go through with the wedding. But you’re accusing me of that.”

  “Why would I want a marriage that exists in name only? Where we maintain the status quo in separate towns? That’s not what a marriage should be. It hardly fits the definition of family.”

  “I care about my family!”

  “Do they care just as much about you?” Max asked sharply. “Have you asked Margot exactly when Jon needs a kidney? He couldn’t be here if he needed it immediately and was on the waiting list. You’d delay our wedding again and you don’t even know the time frame. Margot hasn’t mentioned a word about it to me. You?”

  “Well…I just figured…the sooner the better.”

  “I doubt she’s even put him on the list.” He sighed. “You want to save Jon? Fine, save him, but don’t wait for your sacrifice to make Margot love you. You wanna be a donor? Make sure you’re not Margot’s easiest way out.”

  “That can’t be true.” Karinne felt sick to her stomach. “Mom would’ve made sure he was on the list, I’m positive.”

  “How do you know? Did you ask her? No. Did Margot volunteer the information? No, again. Why do you think I hired a detective? There may be other, more timely matches for Jon on the donor list. She’s risking your health…yes. But she’s also risking Jon’s by bringing him all the way here from Mexico. Can’t you see, Karinne? Once again Margot’s putting herself instead of her child first. I never trusted her when I was a boy, and I don’t trust her now. Be careful before you play the hero.”

  “I see. Only you can play that role, like saving me from being used by my evil mother. Or holding my hand when I’m acting stupid.”

  “The one without your ring?” Max picked up her hand and dropped it. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed. And I’m not the one being a hero, Karinne. You won’t leave your father, which makes it easy for him to stay alone in that big house instead of swallowing his pride, showing how unselfishly he could love his daughter and moving into an assisted care facility. You have all these people to save—except yourself. I can admire your loyalty, Karinne. Except it seems that your loyalty to me, our relationship as a couple, is the price we’re paying.”

  The fire popped and abruptly settled, the main log breaking and sending sparks flying. Karinne stood awkwardly. Max remained seated.

  “We need more wood,” she said.

  Karinne stepped away and lifted her jacket from on top of her backpack. She shrugged it on and hurried to the door as his voice rang out in one last sentence.

  “Running away won’t solve anything.” Max watched Karinne close the door.

  “GO AFTER HER,” Cory ordered.

  “She’s getting firewood,” Max said, his voice dull. “She doesn’t need me for that.”

  “What you did was stupid, Max!” Margot spoke from where she lay on the bed.

  “I thought you were sleeping,” he said.

  “I was listening. You can’t ask Karinne to choose between her family and you.”

  “He never has,” Cory spat out. “It’s bad enough that Jeff refuses to take care of himself. Now you and Jon want a piece of Karinne. She can spend the rest of her life lonely and miserable, just like she spent her childhood. Is that what you want, Margot? Go after her, Max!”

  “Just tell her things will be okay, and you’ll give her time,” Margot suggested. “You always take the easy way, Margot. You’re doing it now. I hope you treat your son better!” Cory said.

  “Lower your voice. You’ll wake him! And I’m doing my best for my son,” Margot hissed.

  “By using Karinne as a donor?” Max asked.

  “I can’t help Jon myself,” Margot said to Cory. “I’m not a match.”

  “Is Jon on the waiting list for a kidney? Did you give him a chance to be saved by someone else?” Max asked.

  Margot didn’t say anything.

  “I have my answer,” he said.

  “Figures.” Cory’s voice was filled with disgust. “You’re a gambler, Mrs. C. You prefer to make your own luck. Why wait for some random donor when you can stack the deck with Karinne? You don’t care whose life you wreck.”

  “I care more than your brother did when I went to talk to my daughter for the last time. He wouldn’t even let me see her.”

  “That was years ago. You didn’t have to leave, and Max did what had to be done,” Cory said harshly. “I wish you’d never come here.”

  “Cory!” By now Anita was awake.

  “You and Jeff were lousy parents! We knew it then, and we were just kids. The two of you are still bad parents.”

  “Cory, enough!” Max ordered. “All of you…where’s Jon?”

  Everyone looked around.

  “Someone check the bathroom.”

  Cory slammed open the door of the bathroom and emerged, his face worried. “He’s not in there, Max.”

  Max and Cory scrambled for flashlights.

  “Anita?” Cory asked. “Did you see him leave?”

  Anita shook her head. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

  “Oh, my God, he must’ve heard us,” Margot whispered as Max shone the light under the bunks and into the kitchen. “Where did he go?”

  “Where younger brothers always go for help,” Cory said, catching his brother’s gaze. “Their older sibling.”

  Anita stared at Cory. “Karinne?”

  “Who else? She went out to get wood. Jon must have followed after overhearing our conversation.”

  As Max silently pulled on his boots, Margot began to cry.

  Cabin Fox-5

  OUTSIDE, VISIBILITY lightened just enough for Karinne to make it to the woodpile without a flashlight, but not enough to pierce the misting rain and dark shadows down in the canyon walls. The remaining scraps of wood at the bottom of their cabin’s pile had sunk into the soft mud, making them totally useless. Max had already brought in the last of the wood at Deer-15, their own cabin. The search for new fireplace fuel would give her an excuse for a temporary escape.

  Karinne kept hearing Max’s words over and over in her head. Margot had sacrificed Karinne’s childhood for selfish reasons. Now Margot wanted to sacrifice her for Jon. She continued to hike, her mind racing as she trudged along the mucky trail among the widely spaced lodgings, past the empty woodpiles of the Bear and Cougar cabins and toward the Deer and Elk areas.

  By the time she finally reached Fox-5’s cabin and porch, Karinne was shivering. Despite her jacket, she felt cold, her boots muddy and socks soggy. She vaguely knew she had to stop, warm up and, most of all, calm down before starting back with an armload of wood. She knocked on the cabin door, not wanting to intrude or steal wood. When there was no response, she tried opening it. The place was locked and empty, just like all the others. She wondered if the majority of campers had had enough warning to make it to the canyon rim before the storm hit, although a few cabins still seemed to be occupied.

  Where is everyone?

  She felt like the lone survivor on a deserted island. Karinne unsuccessfully tried the front windows, but had more luck with a side window. She popped out the screen and crawled in. The sheltered air of the cabin felt stale and almost as cold inside as out. The dry, seasoned wood piled beside the hearth should have made her feel a little better, but didn’t. She didn’t even have the
ambition to start a fire. She sat on the rock hearth, dripping wet.

  Karinne lifted the phone—astonished at getting an actual signal. She found Margot’s cabin number on the phone sheet posted. Karinne remembered those awful days when she’d waited and waited for a phone call as a child, a call saying Margot was safe. The call that never came.

  I’m not her. I’ll let everyone know I’m okay.

  The phone rang twice before Anita picked up. “Karinne?”

  “Anita? It’s me,” Karinne said immediately.

  “Where are you?” Anita asked. “Fox-5.”

  “That far?”

  “I was looking for dry wood. I’ll head back as soon as I get warmed up.”

  Max’s voice replaced Anita’s. “Stay where you are. Jon’s missing.”

  “What? I’ll meet you and start looking.”

  “No, we’ll meet you. We think he went after you and is walking your way. In this mud he’ll be able to track you easily enough if you stay put. You’ll see him before we will. Stay at the cabin in case he shows up. Light a fire if you can.”

  “Call me if you find him first, okay?” Karinne begged.

  “Got it.”

  Karinne hung up the phone, her clothes soaked and adding to the puddles on the dull wood floor.

  Thank God I called, she thought. She opened the door and stepped outside, back into the rain. It appeared that Jon was as unpredictable as his mother.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jon Lazar trudged furiously through the rain, easily following Karinne’s deep footprints in the muddy trail. He could barely see the next cabin up ahead, but he wouldn’t lose the path. Jon knew how to keep himself safe in isolated terrain. His absent father didn’t baby him; he’d instructed him well in the rugged oil camps in raw country. But Jon had never learned to sleep through storms. He’d heard every word Max, Karinne, Cory and his mother had said.

  Mom didn’t tell Dad everything about Karinne, Jon thought angrily. Or me. No wonder Dad’s not here.

  The three of them always vacationed together. The dreaded “divorce” had been Jon’s first fear at the news that his father would not be joining them in the Grand Canyon. Ordinarily a very honest child, he’d secretly started reading his mother’s email. He realized his mother was making electronic travel reservations, taking him away from his father. That disturbed him even more, enough to prompt him to read his mother’s computer journal. She’d used the same password as far back as he could remember: shutterbug.

  That was when he learned his parents weren’t legally married, that it was all a pretense. Jon had always known he had a sister named Karinne—that was no secret—but he hadn’t understood why Margot had never allowed them to meet.

  I do now. Mom’s still married to Karinne’s dad.

  Greatly disturbed, Jon had begun reviewing every internet site Margot had “hit” on their home computer. They were all kidney donor sites. The computer work had been easy. He knew how to access the internet. When he was out of school and in the middle of nowhere, the laptop was Jon’s entertainment and his connection to his father.

  Jon was angry, angrier than he’d ever been in his life. The legal status of his parents’ “marriage” paled beside his mother’s present behavior. He understood that he had kidney problems, but he didn’t know he needed a transplant, or that his mother planned to involve his long-lost sister in this. Margot had still taken him away from his father without Stephan’s consent. Worse…Mom’s begging.

  He’d seen beggars in Central America pitifully gathered outside the guarded entrances to oil fields—women, old men, babies who could barely walk, crying for food, water, money. Honor and morals were often sacrificed for a longer life. His father had taught Jon that beggars must be pitied. Except for death, they had no other choice.

  But his mother was worse than any beggar.

  Beggars could have honor. Leeches didn’t. Jon knew about those kinds of people, too. They were the dishonorable opportunists who stole from everyone, even the beggars. Was his mother one of them? In his emails, Jon’s father had asked Margot to wait until he returned from the field, yet Margot had taken Jon on a plane and made sure he’d had no further access to her computer.

  I don’t want Karinne’s kidney. I don’t even need it right now. I’ll get one later. After hearing Max and his mother’s conversation, he’d left the cabin. Jon slogged through more puddles. He had to find Karinne—explain how he had nothing to do with Margot’s disgraceful behavior. He never begged or lied or pretended, the way his mother had.

  He’d find his sister and tell her he wasn’t like that. Then, with or without his mother’s help, he was going home.

  Cabin Fox-5

  OUTSIDE ON THE SHELTERED porch, Karinne peered through the rain for any sign of Jon. She was torn with fear for the boy and worry over her argument with Max. He had a point. He always had to step back whenever any of Karinne’s family demanded her help. Her father refused to sell the huge home that was too much for him to keep up. Jeff swore vehemently that assisted living communities were for “senior citizens with one foot in the grave,” not for him.

  Margot expected her to put everything else aside for a stranger Karinne had never met, didn’t even know about. Not once had Margot spent any time with Karinne for Karinne’s sake. All their conversations dealt with Margot’s agenda—curing her son.

  Karinne realized that her fantasy reunion with her mother would never, ever come true. Regardless of Karinne’s age, job and education, she hadn’t really gone beyond the day Margot disappeared. She’d stayed frozen, deep inside. Cameras and viewfinders and lenses added a comfortable distance between her and the world. No wonder Max felt she was slipping away from him. She’d never really connected with him.

  Her future seemed dismal. She saw the shadow of the canyon’s huge wall filtered through the rain—dark and distorted, it reinforced her belief. Even Margot had finally come out into the light. When would it be her turn and Max’s?

  “Karinne!”

  Who had just called her name?

  Karinne backtracked toward her mother’s cabin. The depth of the water increased as it followed the trail’s downward contour, and after passing just one cabin, Karinne found herself wading up to her shins. By the second cabin the water was up to her knees. Her jeans sucked it up like a wick and sent chilly goose bumps down her spine. Karinne lifted her head against the wind, squinting, she peered into the rain.

  “Jon? Is that you?”

  Cabin Bear-3

  SHELTERED FROM the pouring rain, Max reached for his jacket. “Ladies, babysit the phone,” he said.

  “Wait for me.” Cory grabbed his own jacket.

  “I’m coming, too. I’ve got to find Jon and Karinne,” Margot insisted. She yanked open the front door and gasped.

  The front steps were under the water, which seeped ominously over the landing toward the door.

  “Everyone, get your packs,” Max ordered, his voice urgent. “We’ve got to get to higher ground. Now.”

  Cory joined Max on the porch, just as Max shed his own pack and passed it to his brother.

  “Max, what are you doing?”

  “I’m going to look for Jon, check on Karinne, then try for the raft while I still can. First, let’s get the women up on the roof.”

  Max didn’t bother with details. Monsoons caused flash flooding; water levels could rise a foot a minute—or faster. He gauged the distance from the porch to the slanted roof. In the background, some of the other campers had emerged to climb onto their own roofs. “I’ll get the raft while you check on Jon and Karinne,” Cory said. “Let’s split the workload.”

  “Stay with your wife and Margot. I’ll go.”

  Cory spoke in a voice full of emotion. “God, Max…”

  Max hugged Cory back, deeply affected. The two brothers broke apart as Cory added, “If you don’t come back…”

  Cory picked up the plastic five-gallon water jug, emptied most of it out, recapped the lip and s
hoved it at Max.

  “Here, take this. It’ll work as a flotation device.”

  “Thanks.”

  “And next trip, we keep the damn life jackets with us.”

  “You bet.”

  “Bon voyage.”

  Max descended the covered steps and waded into the water as the women came out of the cabin.

  “Max is going after the raft,” Cory announced.

  “But what about Jon and Karinne?” Margot asked.

  “Max will get them—and us—in the raft.”

  “I’m going with him,” Margot said defiantly.

  Cory grabbed Margot’s wrist. “Stay here!”

  “Let me go.” Margot struggled, trying to yank free.

  “No! Max has enough on his hands.”

  “I don’t have to listen to Max.”

  “True,” Cory said. “But you have to listen to me.”

  Cabin Fox-5

  KARINNE SPOTTED Jon in cold water up to his waist. Fortunately, the cabin she was in stood on a higher rise than most of the others. She reached for Jon’s hand and pulled him onto higher ground.

  “What in the world are you doing here?” Karinne asked.

  “I wanted to see you.”

  “By yourself? Are you alone? Where’s everyone else?”

  “Back at Mom’s cabin. They didn’t even notice I left,” Jon said proudly.

  “What were you thinking?” In the shallower water, Karinne guided Jon toward the unlocked cabin door. “Mom’s gotta be sick with worry.”

  “You left, too,” Jon reminded her.

  “I phoned in.”

  “You still left.”

  “No, I was looking for wood.”

  “Well, I was looking for you.”

  “I can’t believe I’m having an argument with you in the water. Your health’s bad enough as it is!” Together they waded up onto the porch. “Get in the house,” Karinne said. “I’ll call the cabin.”

  “Wait.” Jon grabbed at Karinne’s sleeve. “It’s about Mom.”

  “Mom?” Karinne repeated.

  “And me. She wants your help, but I don’t.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Being a kidney donor. It was Mom’s idea, not mine. She didn’t ask me. She should have.”